The Red Dresser's Hens & Friends Barn Sale

What a wonderful weekend and the perfect setting for a sale - beautiful yard filled with canopy tents, each filled with fun things to sell. An old, red barn in the middle of the yard that housed many more little nooks and crannies of unique - and antique - things to sell. Fun stuff. Fun event.

This was my first outdoor sale and I think God had truly blessed my weekend. The event was a short walk from my house which made getting there pretty easy. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. It was great to see people excited about their new treasures and being inspired to create something themselves with some Annie Sloan paint that was sold there. Fellowship with my helpful granddaughter, daughter and niece made it pretty special, too - my hubby was very helpful, too, and even our son was able to lend a helping hand.

You just never know what will sell, and even though I had to bring some stuff back home I did pretty well. I went there with an assortment of things and sold an assortment of things, but people are really into the old furniture stuff right now - wood grain furniture not so much, but painted old furniture - that's where the interest is. They either want the pieces that someone has put a nice coat of paint on or they want an old piece of furniture that they can paint themselves - making something old look fresh and new with lots of character.

Here are some pictures of the great weekend...

 

 

The Americana corner - handcrafted checkerboards, water bottle holders, baby t-shirts, an apron...

Red, white & blue stuff.

 

Garage sale finds painted with Annie Sloan Paint.

 

Old cupboard doors that I saved from our kitchen remodeland painted for the sale - the raised centers became chalkboards.

They were a popular item and fun for us to write little messages onso folks would know that they were actually chalkboards.

Lily (the vintage dress form) is wearing one of the aprons that I made.

My helpers (Tiffani & Lori) had fun putting aprons on and walking around with them on to try to make a sale for me.

I spent today in one of the Cherry Aprons - I don't usually wear an apron, but think I'm going to start.

It was fun to wear and it really would keep me from getting stuff splattered all over my clothes while cooking.

 

Chalkboards were selling well the first evening so I had to fill in the gaps today with checkerboards.

 

The Barn Sale Special was the Hamper Liners with the wastebasket that they fit in - small hampers that work well for kids. The first ones I made were for our new grandbaby. We've discovered that they're great for fabric scraps in this grandma's

sewing room, good for stuffed animals that need a place to hang out other than the floor, and for the basic laundry hamper where there's not a whole lot of room for a big one. There are lots of fabrics tops to choose from.

 

A couple of my helpers. :)

 

A vintage stroller that's been in the rafters of our garage for years.

It didn't sell at the Barn Sale but it did makefor some fun pictures of our grandbaby, Emma.

 

 

This is me, Marge. For those of you that know me but haven't seen me in a while, YES, I quit coloring my hair.

It is not gray or silver, but WHITE. I'm ok with that.

I no longer have to worry about the wind blowing my hair and someone seeing my roots.

I'm happy having my grandma's white hair.

It's doesn't make me any older but it has simplified my life, and sofar everyone seems to recognize me. :)

 

Again, it was a great weekend and a fun event to be a part of.  Let me know if you see anything in the pictures that you're interested in - NO, the grandbaby is not for sale.  :)

Wrapped in Love

A few months after my mother passed away my younger brother welcomed his first grandchild into the family.  Out of seven kids in my family he was the only one that hadn't had the opportunity to share a grandchild with my mom.   I kept feeling that I needed to do something to show my brother that this little baby was still connected to my mom even though she wouldn't meet her in this life here on earth.   This is when I turned on the creativity that had been hiding deep inside and made little Ella a blanket...

Through tears, I cut apart a pair of my mother's slacks and a blouse that she had worn.   As I began to piece the little squares together I realized there weren't enough to make a very big blanket, so I started looking through some more of her things - yes, a hankie will do.   So one of my mother's hankie's became the center of the blanket and it made it just the perfect size.

Hmmmmm - I had this pocket left over from the blouse. What could I do with the pocket?  Well, I stitched it onto the blanket and made a little heart to fit in it - another little piece of love.

So the first memory blanket was created and shared - not just a blanket from me, but a blanket from my mom.  It was a way to show that my mother will never really be gone.  She lives on in our hearts and in our lives.  Her love will live on and on and on... we can share that love with each new baby that is born into our family by sharing our memories of her and how she so loved her family.  For me, I found a way to wrap that baby in her love - a love that flows from generation to generation - a blanket pieced with the very clothes that my mother wore and a hankie that was always neatly tucked away in her dresser drawer.

Ella's blanket.

 

My mother's will to live was so strong right up until the point the doctors said they couldn't do anymore for her.   She loved her family so much.  Through years of illness, her will to live was kept strong by looking forward to the next family event, the next visit from a friend or relative, and the next due date for a new baby to be born into the family.  I'm trying to keep her love of family going strong as I stitch together a blanket here and there for a new family member so that they can be "Wrapped in Love".

Emma's blanket - our new grandbaby.

 

 

This blanket was made from two of my mom's blouses and a hankie (not even one of her hankies, but I liked that vintage touch in the center of the blankets).  This blanket didn't go together well because of the silky fabrics.  I almost decided to start over with different fabrics, but then I walked into my dad's one day and he had that picture of my mom out on the kitchen table - she was wearing one of the blouses I had cut into blanket squares... I had to be using the right clothes even through it was a struggle to sew.  I can't begin to share how touched I was when little Emma showed up at church one Sunday dressed in a cute little yellow outfit, and this blanket wrapped around her - wrapped in my mother's love.